Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-03-26

The st. Johns is wonderful stream and it
'arrieS one back to the stories Of the Nhssis-
ippi in slavery days. l had imagined it a
narrow, swampy creek rather than one of the
mighty rivers Of the continent, and | was sur
priSed to find it in many places wider than
the Nile at Cairo, and to be told that it car
ried body of water equal to the Amazon.
This must, however, be an eXaggeration. With
its branches it affords 1000 miles of navigable
water transportation, and it is 400 miles long.
Near Jacksonville it is an arm of the sea, and
miles above it it is a great clear inland lake,
which winds about in great sweeps, and on
the banks of which are seen here and there
the winter residences of rich men and the
homes Of settlers. Long wooden wharves
reach out into it at these settlements, and a
glass will show you the yellow oranges on the
trees surrounding the houses.
Seventeen miles above Jacksonville is
Harriet Beecher Stoves winter home. 1t is
n modern frame cottage overlooking the
great river, and it shows out among the vines
and trees as the boat goes by. The surround
ings of the cottage are similar to some of
the country of Uncle TOMS Cabin, and it
does not seem strange that the authoress
should live in the south amid the freed slaves
whose terrible story of the past she told so
well
Jacksonville looks like a great city when
viewed from the river. 1t has magnificent
water 'front.' and the immense hotels show
ing up in the town would lead to the sup
position that the town had 100000 people
instead of 10000 Ocean steamers lie at these
wharves, and this is the shipping port for the
greater part of Florida. 1t will be a great
city some day, and understand that real es-
tate values are away up already.
49,
The St. Johns is one of the few rivers within
the boundaries of the United States that run
north. Its course is through the eastern part
of the peninsula, and our steamer carried us
200 miles against its slow current south from
Jacksonville TO Sandford. The country
through which it passes is picturesquely
tropical. Palmettoes and live oaks line its
low banks, and jungle equal to that of the
great Dismal Swamp extends at times for
many miles at a stretch. The first part of our
ride through the wide part of the river, where
it is five or six miles from bank TO bank, gave
us one of the most beautiful sunsets have
seen in any country The waters turned
from steel to gold and assumed all the colors
Of the rainbow as the sun, a great ball of fire,
set behind the palmetto trees. 1t left for an
hour after its setting panoramic view of the
most gorgeous colors on river and sky, where
the gold and silver in the clouds were only
surpassed by that of the ripping golden
waves, which seemed to wash upon silver
sands at the shore.
M*.
We rode all night upon this wonderful
river, and the moon came up and made more
weird the tropical scene surrounding US
N-ac ,.-o,,,, boIr,1- o,,d COft t,at
sat without our overcoatS or wraps on the
deck of the boat, and felt as comfortable as
did Lorenzo and Jessica when soliloquizing
in the moonlight of Italy. The trees were
loaded down with Spanish moss, which hung
like sable silver boards from their numerous
branches; the palmettoes, with their tall
round trunks bore aloft their palrny heads in
the moonlight and the only things heard
were the rush of the steamer through the
water and now and then the splash of some
animal in the water.
We awoke to find the river narrowed so
that at times our boat seemed to almost
touch the banks, and so that we could now
and then see a great ugly crocodile lying
upon the shore or scurrying through the
water to get out of the way of the boat.
Tropical birds now began to appear, and
we saw cranes, pelicans, herons and buzzards.
with two large eagles The air was again like
June, and the banks Of the low, black river
were swampy and low. There were cypress
and palmetto trees by the thousands, and
thousands of tons of this Spanish moss hung
TO the branches of all kinds of trees eating up
their vitality, and in many cases clinging to
the trees after their bare branches showed
that the life of the tree had long since passed
away. We saw numerous wild flowers, and
the swamps were full of living green. The
ground was black, and am told that 1t is
the richest of black loan. 1t will probably
be utilized some day, but it will be when the
rest of our vacant lands are TILED and we